. Any chance to post some pics LOL 
]
I've had e46 M3's for 10 years now.
I had 3 at one point and all SMG's.
I've gone down to two e46 M3s now, one is a coupe and one is a convertible.... I guess you could say i'm a bit obsessed with the E46 M3's
Mileage makes a "big" difference on price's. You could pick up an e46 M3 for £7k and you can find one for £30k with very low miles.
If you pick up a cheap one £8k - £9k it can easily cost you £15k in no time just to get them to drive good and look well, depends how far you want to go as well.
The e46 M3CS and CSL are even more money.
As you can imagine having an M3's for so long, I absolutely love them. One of my fav cars ever. The coupe drives better than the convertible and the performance difference is noticeable.
They have aged so well and every time I take the M3 out, I remember why I love this cars so much. They feel special to me. The way they sound, the way they put the power down. BMW got it right with the E46 M3. Yes, in today's standards, it's not a very fast car but I wouldn't say it's slow either. A remapped Golf R would destroy it in a straight line but a Golf will always be a Golf. It's not just about speed
The engine is special but you have to rev them to get the most out of it.
The handling is fantastic, especially if you fit good quality coilovers but even standard they handle very well.
All my M3's have been lowered on coilovers.
Many people don't like the SMG gearbox. I personally like it. If you flash the CSL software, it makes the gear changes much sharper, quicker and it rev matches. It's old technology now and compare to today's DCT gearboxes is not as good but i think you should drive one and see if ''you'' like it. Just make sure you go for a long drive and have the gear settings on 5
Coupes are worth more than convertibles and they are going up in value ( the good ones )
Do they have problems?
Of course they do, and many expensive ones!
Vanos unit fails on all of them at some point but they start to get noisy and as soon as you hear it, get it fixed. It will cost about £1k.
Sometimes they fail without any signs so if it has over 50k - 60k miles just get it done.
Rear sub frame cracking.... again, this happens on every E46 M3 and other E46 BMW's but it depends how hard they've been driven. It can crack at 20k miles or 120k miles, its just a matter of time. It costs from around £700+ to £2500 to get it fixed.
SMG gearbox can give problems but they don't cost as much as they used to 10 years ago to fix them. Plus many places can convert them to manual if it goes and let's say it will cost £1500 to get everything fixed, you might as well spend another £500 and convert it to manual if you like. I wouldn't do it to any of my M3's personally as I do like the SMG gear box. It just makes it that little bit more special for me.
They can be a bit jerky but if you do drive one, you need to drive it for a while to get the hang of it and get used to the gearbox. I never drive it in automatic mode as it's not an automatic gearbox. If you drive it in auto mode, the gear changes are very slow.
Head gasket also is one other thing. It can go on cars with 100k miles and over.
Rod bearing shells are another thing you'll have to get done. This costs around £700 if I remember right.
The diff can also go at around 100k+ miles
Interior mirror leaks, a replacement one is £100 so not too bad
Lastly, rust! They can suffer with rust badly. Make sure you check it out properly when buying one.
Make sure it has a good service history. The more of the big jobs that have been done, the better it is for you as you know you won't have to spend that money.
Every car has its problems and If you want one, go for it. I hope I haven't put you off them because of the problems they can have.
In america they still drive them hard with 300k miles.
If looked after, they are fantastic cars and can do big miles
I wish I bought a CSL 10 years ago when you could pick them up for around £25k. Now they're £50k+ cars and very low mileage ones £80k+ but I didn't know much about CSL back then
Here are some pic's of my ones to help you decided if you want to go for it
The convertible one is very low miles, it has just turned 28k.
upload photo
My second one is an Individual model. Le Mans blue with white leather. Apparently its 1 of 24 world wide rhd E46 M3's in this colour combo. This is my fav M3 so far. [ For anyone that looks at the number plate and has a go at me. ignore that is says TOO OCD, It's T80 OCD... It was touched up in this photo but it's the only one i have to post
This was my third one that I sold. Carbon black with black leather..... I tried to make this car look as good as possible inside, outside and underneath. I would like to get the underneath of the Individual one to look the same if possible at some point
. The Le Mans Blue is epic. If you wanna sell please PM me!
Wow. Just wow.
Your cars are
I'm currently looking at the top end of the market of manual cars with all major jobs done or atleast the majority.
I would of loved an individual colour but they are rarely coming up and if they do they are getting snapped up so quickly on the equivalent m3 forum, it's hard to even get the opportunity to buy as there as so many people who buy and flip instantly....
You've pretty much hit the nail on the head with your post. I've pretty much gone in with my eyes open and looking for cars with the major jobs done and im expecting to pay more simply because these jobs are done.
Thank you!
I have a few people that want to buy the Le mans blue M3. A few weeks ago I just finished a full underside restoration on the car. I also got the subframe welded up with redish motorsport plates.
Every nut and bolt was cleaned, prepped and then painted.
I won't bore you with all the details but here is a video that you can see the underneath at 2:51 seconds ( if you want to skip the first few mins ) and a few pics how it looks now
You're right about individual ones or good ones being sold quickly on the m3 forum and then you see them for sale a week later for a lot more. I missed out on a CS e46 m3 that sold for £15k recently and a few days later it was up for £20k and the seller used the same description and pics of the previous owner! It sold for £20k quite quick.
I would have kept it for myself but when I saw the advert, I thought I'd sleep on it and make a decision in the morning. I was too late!
I hope you find the right car
If I can help you with anything, don't hesitate to ask
Boy is that clean under there!
I've arranged a viewing this week on a silver gray coupe, will let you know how it goes.
I've just realised who you are in terms of other cars you own. Your S600 is one gangster car
thank you. The S600 is one of the best cars I've had but it does have a bit of a gangster image 
